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[thenewguy]

I was perusing job ads, and found a good one in Edinburgh! I'm applying for Assistant Professor positions in the US (tenure track but you go up for tenure after 5 years). I thought the equivalent in the UK was "lecturer." But, this particular ad was for a "Senior Academic Fellow." The roles are "on five year fixed-term contracts in the first instance with the likely conversion to open ended lectureship, senior lectureship or readership positions after a formal review procedure." and "requires outstanding research scientists with ambitions to develop and lead internationally competitive research groups."
Is this the same as an assistant professorship in the US?  If so, then what's a lecturer? An Associate Professor? 

[eurouk]

This sounds like (or similar to) an RCUK fellowship, which is a prestigious 5-year fellowship, focused on research, although I believe that some people also teach. It's not a permanent job, but is supposed, even guaranteed to lead to a permanent post. I'm not sure if you would be paid on the academic pay scale or the research scale for the fellowship, but maybe someone else knows more about the details.

[jim73]

Someone who has heard of Edinburgh (see 'US citizen with a UK postgraduate degree...' in job-seeking.

A senior academic fellow in this context probably virtually equates to a lecturer as you might reasonably expect to make the jump to SL or Reader after five years.  This sounds a little like one of the RCUK schemes whereby people are appointed on a five year research track and then convert to a lectureship afterwards - basically a way to get promising researchers up and running. I suppose it all depends on how one inteprets 'likely' in the advert.

If it is indeed a RCUK fellowship its a great opportunity. Imagine seeking tenure with minimal teaching and administrative responsibilities and the remit to publish like a demon for five years....

[realbusacad]

not heard of a 'senior academic fellow' before. UK system uses academic grades (lecture/senior lecturer/reader/prof) which are largely equivalent to job/grade of assist prof/assoc/full in US. To confuse things, there are also research positions (considered non-academic or of lesser status BUT requiring no teaching): research assistant / senior research assistant (=junior lec); research assoc/senior research assoc (=lecturer); research fellow (=higher end of lec scale) and senior research fellow (=senior lecturer).

RCUK is generally equal to research fellow, but with discretion to pay to top of senior research fellow scale.

To add further confusion there are also teaching fellows, professional tutors and professorial fellows. To add even further confusion some places are now using US grades mix and matched with UK grades (eg. Nottingham seniority scale - Lecturer / Sen Lec / Assoc Prof / Reader / Prof).

Working in McDonalds is easier (just count the stars on your badge to see seniority). With UK pay scales, it's also potentially far better paid......